Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-02-24
HARD TIMES.

| There.are chronic grumblers among
farmers as well as those engaged in
other pursuits. Indeed, we have seen
farmers so addicted TO fault finding,
that let the season be ever 30 favorable,
| their crops never so abundant, and
prices Of farm produce never so high
they would continue to grumble and
complain of hard times. A farmer
often finds the hard-times' excuse a
sufficient reason for leaving the old
homestead and trying his luck else
where perhaps in the far West. But
for such, there is no spot on earth that
can suit them, and where ever they 60,
hard times will be the burden of their
song.
A few days since we accidentally
met one of these chronic grumbling
farmers. He was an old acquaintance
from town not far away from Angus
ia. After the usual salutations, on
being asked If there was anything new
he replied Nothing stirring except
hard times, and that is nothing new.'
We replied that we were not aware
that times were uncommonly hard, but
on the contrary, thought that they
were quite good for farmers. Tie an
swered !: You are nightly mistaken !;
that times were so hard that farmers
found it very difficult to support their
families and raise money enough to pay
taxes, and as for himself, he had almost
made up his mind to sell out, and 60
where lands were cheaper and better.'
We expressed our regret at such
state Of things told him that we and
several of our friends were laying in
our supplies, and would take some of
his produce and pay him cash for it !;
that if he would bring In few cords
of seasoned hard wood we would pay
him six dollars per cord, but he said he
had none cut, not even enough for his
own use. We told him we would find
a chance for him to sell few tons of
good hay, at fourteen dollars per ton
delivered, but he said 'he expected to
have to buy to keep out his own stock.
Then we offered him dollar a bushel
for nice homegrown corn, twenty-fiv
cents per pound for good butter, CITY
cents per bushel for oats and sixty for
good potatoes, but the answer was the
same in each case, Il have none to
spare
On inquiry We learned that he had
one hundred acres of good land, of
which sixty acres were cleared and in
grazing or moving; that he had twenty
FIVE acres in old growth wood and
fifteen acres in sprout-land that his
thirty acres of moving did:not yield
over twelve tons of hay that his pas
ture was largely grown up to bushes
that he kept horse and no oxen that
he had three boys from twelve to
eighteen years of age that his house
was out of repair, barn roof leaky ,fenc-
es down, and that they all had to work
like dogs, "to make the strap meet and
buckle" and sometimes they fell be-
hind and were obliged to get in debt.
We made up our mind that it was
hard times with him and always would
be, no matter where he might pitch his
tent. When a man with one hundred
acres Of nice Kenebec county land with
help enough to carry on his farm with
out hiring, with no sickness or other
similar drawbacks, was willing to con.
fess that he had raised nothing to sell
and found it hard to make both ends
meet, we knew that the trouble was
with him, and not with his farm. The
fact that he kept horse and no oxen,
was a Suspicious circumstance of itself,
and when we know that that horse may
be seen almost any afternoon hitched
up on Water street, we can well under
stand the cause Of hard times on that
farm.